I only allowed myself to sleep for four hours. I could find the most dangerous man in Lisirra in one full day. Five heartbeats later I was back in the inn room, weak gray sunlight filtering through the window. If it takes any longer than that, expect punishment." I imagine he didn't appreciate staying up all night waiting for me to bring word. "Let's hope not." Zahir set his glass down and looked at me - looked at my shade. "Do you have any idea how many times 'tomorrow evening' becomes 'two months from now'?" It should be completed by tomorrow evening." "This was not meant to be an involved operation." "I'm confident I'll be able to track him." My body was still in the inn, stretched out on the bed, surrounded by dawn's light and the scent of the sea, but my voice and thoughts, all the rest of me, were at the Order. "I encountered complications." My voice reverberated against my ears. I felt like I was a child again, being scolded for doing poorly in training. "This is taking longer than we expected, Naji." Seeing him filled me with a dull, familiar dread that I did my best to ignore. Zahir was waiting for me with a glass of dark red wine. I fell away from the room, through shadows, through Kajjil, until I was a shade in the flickering firelight of the Order's assignment room. When I finally decided to get it over with, sunlight was just beginning to creep up over the water.
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